This Tuesday, Nolwenn Perrichot does not have a minute to lose. A stack of thick files under her arm, this children’s judge from the Nanterre court of law, strides towards the courtroom, located on the floor above. A dozen minors – the youngest was not 13 at the time of the facts – are summoned in the morning, all suspected of having committed crimes. “Usually, these hearings take place in my office but with the Covid and the rules of social distancing, it’s impossible,” said the magistrate, sitting behind the desk.
Adel *, a slim 16-year-old teenager, is the first to walk through the door, followed by his mother. “We saw each other barely a few weeks ago,” laments Nolwenn Perrichot when he sees him appear. She has been following him for several years for educational assistance measures, but recently her name has appeared in various criminal proceedings. This time, it is for a case of concealment of theft and refusal to comply that he is summoned. He recognizes the second offense bluntly but begins by denying any link with the theft… before being confronted with his contradictions in front of videos.
Since the start of the hearing, the magistrate has oscillated between firmness and pedagogy. Her questions relate as much to the facts as to Adel’s academic results, her relationship with her mother or the work undertaken with the educator. “You cannot judge without trying to understand the situation behind”, she specifies. After 45 minutes, Adel is declared guilty and leaves with a remission to parents, a sanction which aims to remind them of their role. “You will really have to learn from your mistakes because at one point it will have more and more consequences”, insists Nolwenn Perrichot to the teenager.
Penal reform for minors
This Tuesday, she will only pronounce educational measures because all these adolescents appear before the council chamber, a training which allows to judge little-known minors of justice and less serious cases. Until now, only teenagers over 16 who have committed an offense punishable by 7 years’ imprisonment have been referred to the children’s court, able to pronounce a firm sentence or suspended. But the entry into force, in September, of the penal reform of minors will allow the judge to decide before which training to send these young people, without restriction of age or of penalty incurred, in particular according to their antecedents. And even before the council chamber, a sentence of general interest will be possible.
Above all, with this reform, the entire operation of the criminal justice system for minors is changing. From now on, the children’s judge will have to rule at the first hearing on the guilt and a second, set up to 9 months later, will allow a sanction to be established. In the meantime, the minor will be subjected to a period of educational probation. “In principle, speeding up the time for justice is rather a good idea, but in fact, it is extremely time-consuming, the hearings will be longer, we really wonder how we are going to achieve it when we are already overloaded. “For the three years she has been assigned to Nanterre, Nolwenn Perrichot has been following around 600 minors.
“I just gave a kiss”
Starting with Pablo, 13 years old. It was she who decided on his placement in a foster home last year, to get him out of a particularly complicated family environment. This Tuesday, his case explodes: while a narcotics case hunts another, he is accused of a sexual assault on his 5-year-old little cousin. Sitting on the bench facing the judge, the teenager with light eyes, light brown hair, nervously pummels his oversized shorts. “I just gave a kiss, the other stuff I didn’t do anything,” he insists. Gently, Nolwenn Perrichot questions him. How to explain that the little boy repeated to several adults an essentially identical story? Pablo insists, he was okay with him kissing her.
Do you think we can agree at 5 years? Have you thought about what it means to “agree”? “Asks the magistrate.
The hearing lasts only 40 minutes but it is enough to perceive an already battered childhood. Despite the seriousness of the charges against him, his parents did not make the trip and he has just been dismissed from the structure in which he was placed. “In a traditional home, he blows everything up”, explains his educator bluntly. She tells about his difficulties in following the rules, his psychological problems but insists on the fact that there was never any case of touching concerning him. Pablo listens with one ear, plays with his water bottle. “I am going to put you under examination”, explains Nolwenn Perrichot. While awaiting judgment, he will be followed by an educator. Standing up to sign the papers, Pablo marks the occasion. “Is that all my file?” Than me ? He asks, pointing to the thick green shirt with his name.
“The objective is that our speech is heard”
Most of the teens this morning are cooperative, some admit wrongdoing that they denied to the police. They listen attentively to the judge, solemn at times, less formal at others. “The goal is for our speech to be heard, for our decision to have meaning,” explains Nolwenn Perrichot. It happens that we sometimes feel powerless but we always manage to believe it, we remain a point of reference for these children. Isn’t she sometimes discouraged to see certain names come up regularly? Yaniss is one of them. At 17 years and 8 months, he has already been called to order on numerous occasions, mainly for drug cases. This time he was arrested with cannabis hidden in his pocket and underpants. The teenager is docile, smiling, swears that he is thinking of stopping. “You know the justice of adults, it will not be the same thing, warns the magistrate. It won’t be the nice judge hoping to get you across. “